Utah Republicans passed a bill that would bar employers and landlords or property owners from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and protect religious institutions that object to homosexuality.

Screenwriter Graham Moore revealed a surprising fact about himself during his Oscar acceptance speech on Sunday night, paid tribute to computer science pioneer Alan Turing and offered encouragement to “that kid out there who feels like she’s weird or she’s different.”

You may have heard that gay marriage is legal, for now, deep in the heart of Dixie. Redneck News’ own Jeremy Todd Addaway reports that, outside of the squirrel population, Alabama is pretty much the same.

Although the country’s views have progressed in terms of gay rights and race, universal health care isn’t something Americans can get used to; a company in Japan offers people weddings to themselves; meanwhile, a confession by former officer Darren Wilson’s prosecutor may be cause to reopen the Ferguson case. These discoveries and more after the jump.

A former reporter and professor of journalism argues that The New York Times omits and blurs facts to protect Israel; drones are having an impact on the way we measure crowds, which is significant in a number of ways; meanwhile, a Russian TV show tried to prove that American parents turn their children gay with propaganda. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Apparently some people just can’t deal with gay PDAs, and, surprisingly, it’s not just heterosexuals who get uncomfortable; a former Israeli intelligence leader expresses his fears about the future of Zionism; meanwhile, Winnie the Pooh has been banned from a small town in Poland for being a “hermaphrodite” who “exposes himself in public.” These discoveries and more after the jump.

Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer and the other “Left, Right & Center” panelists agree that Apple CEO Tim Cook’s (at right) announcement that he’s gay is historic. Meanwhile, the “war on women” isn’t playing in the midterm elections and fast food workers in Denmark are making about $20 per hour.

On Sunday, Pope Francis wrapped up the synod, or bishops meeting, he presided over for the last two weeks with a beatification service at the Vatican for Pope Paul VI but without significant progress made on hot-button topics such as homosexuality, divorce and contraception.

Well said, your honor: A federal judge in Pennsylvania—one John E. Jones III of the Federal District Court in Harrisburg, to be precise—did away with the state’s ban on same-sex marriage on Tuesday, declaring it unconstitutional with an eloquent flourish.

The unlikely Eurovision Song Contest winner from Austria has caused anti-gay fury in Russia; Google is investing in key components for making solar energy; meanwhile, The Washington Post has inconspicuously hired 50 people these past few months. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Claiming to stand for “working families,” Republicans in Congress voted down measures that would increase the minimum wage, protect gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination, broaden equal pay guarantees for women, and finally do something about mine safety four years after the Upper Big Branch disaster. How was your Wednesday?

It’s not just Uganda. The Democratic Republic of the Congo could become the 38th African country to ban homosexuality. A politician in Kenya, meanwhile, is demanding enforcement of a colonial law that criminalizes gay sex.